Ending Poverty In Nigeria: A Tall Order?

Recent statistics by the African Development Bank, in its African economic outlook for 2018, show that poverty in Nigeria is on the rise. The data reveals that 80 million Nigerians leave below one dollar a day, which is the global definition of poverty.

One of the sustainable development goals of the United Nations is the eradication of poverty worldwide by the year 2030.

This may be a tall dream for many countries especially Nigeria knowing it is just 12 years away.

This story looks at Nigeria’s reduction and why many believe eradicating poverty in Nigeria by 2030 is a very tall order.

Gross domestic product (GDP) is the total sum of the monetary value of all goods and services produced within a country for a period of time.

After exiting one of its worst recessions in recent years, Nigeria, today, has more resources than most emerging nations of the world such as Korea, Singapore and brazil but its economic policy distortions and a lack of transparency in the system has impaired progress. It is believed the country needs a double digit growth to reduce poverty.

But GDP should not just be about the numbers.

In a recent tweet, president of the African Development Bank, Akinwunmi Adesina suggested that GDP should never be only about the numbers but must represent inclusive growth. This tweet reinforces the call to African leaders to ensure that their GDP growth is felt by the people.

Attempts to diversify the nation’s economy has been slow and not yielded much. This lives many Nigerians in poverty and insecurity.

But there are also social injustice of limited participation of women in politics, exclusion of young persons in development, violation of child rights and environmental degradation.

To ensure social justice as an alternative means of ending poverty, organisations like action aid believe Nigerians must work together to achieve greater human rights for all and defeat poverty.

Experts agree that Nigeria is a resource rich country and if its governance deficits are tackled, change that is for the public good could be achieved.

The different NGOs, civil societies and government at different levels have come up with various modalities to ending poverty.

But perhaps victory may only come if there is an attempt at synchronizing the different policies and allowing them work in synergy while also ensuring that they are inclusive, actionable and workable.